Juno News - Ezra Levant on being fined for writing a book about Justin Trudeau

00:00:00.000 We know that Justin Trudeau's government loves to pontificate on the importance of press freedom and free speech.

00:00:12.860 They host these big, fancy conferences where they promote the virtues of free speech

00:00:18.000 and say that Canada is a beacon of hope on press freedom.

00:00:21.140 Well, a journalist is being charged for writing a book about Justin Trudeau.

00:00:27.700 You may have heard this story right now.

00:00:29.260 The rebel commander himself and author of The Lebranos, Ezra Levant, posted a fantastic video not that long ago

00:00:36.160 of his interrogation by two investigators with the Commissioner of Canada Elections.

00:00:40.940 It appears that investigation has come to an end and Ezra owes the government $3,000 for the crime of writing a book.

00:00:49.020 Ezra joins me on the line.

00:00:50.980 Ezra, good to talk to you again. Thanks for coming on today.

00:00:53.520 Oh, my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

00:00:55.040 So $3,000, this is the going rate apparently for writing a book that criticizes Justin Trudeau during an election.

00:01:01.760 Yeah, they say it's a violation of the Canada Elections Act.

00:01:06.440 They say that my book, because, and by the way, they spent a lot of time going through this part in their violation notice to me.

00:01:14.160 They say that because I compare the liberals to the Sopranos, remember the title of my book was The Libranos.

00:01:22.940 So they really go on at length about how that's mean, how that compares the liberals to a corrupt group of lawbreakers.

00:01:30.720 And I'm thinking, yeah, yeah.

00:01:32.560 Anyways, they say because it's mean, that is tantamount to a campaign ad.

00:01:38.720 And because we sold so many books during the election, that's an illegal campaign activity.

00:01:44.360 Except for two things.

00:01:45.720 First of all, Section 2 of that same Canada Elections Act specifically exempts books and the promotion of books as long as they're sold at a reasonable price.

00:01:59.160 And I think my book was sold for $15, which was probably a little bit high, in fact.

00:02:04.000 And it applies to the promotion of books, too.

00:02:07.800 So we had billboards and lawn signs and videos and Internet ads.

00:02:13.340 Like, we had about five different ways.

00:02:14.620 And they all used that language, the Libranos.

00:02:17.640 So it's exempt.

00:02:19.480 Section 2 of the Act says it's exempt.

00:02:21.600 Even if Section 2 of the Act didn't say so, we have centuries of common law and our chart of rights and our bill of rights, which protects political speech, freedom of the press.

00:02:32.200 So there's no way that my book is illegal.

00:02:34.900 We don't have illegal books in Canada.

00:02:37.800 Let me throw one last thing at you, Andrew.

00:02:40.660 There were 23 other books published at the same time in the 2019 election about Justin Trudeau.

00:02:48.600 So mine was one of 24 in total.

00:02:51.440 The other 23 were either sort of wishy-washy or extremely pro-Trudeau.

00:02:58.680 For example, there was a book written by the CBC's Aaron Wary, Total Love Letter to Trudeau.

00:03:05.300 So you could say that's a campaign ad for Trudeau, except, of course, it's a book, so it's exempt.

00:03:12.560 The police who interrogated me, they were 30-year veterans of the RCMP, they told me.

00:03:17.900 They're working for Elections Canada now.

00:03:19.800 They said they were aware of these 23 other books, but mine was the only one they were investigating.

00:03:26.440 And I said, how's that?

00:03:28.220 You know, isn't that proof of what's going on there?

00:03:30.520 And they actually said to me, well, you can complain about them.

00:03:33.480 No, I'm not a censor.

00:03:34.760 I'm not this crazy book burner.

00:03:37.280 But they admitted, I'm the only book they're prosecuting.

00:03:41.220 And by the way, I'm the only book that criticized Trudeau.

00:03:43.820 That's a really bad look for a G7 country.

00:03:47.380 Not that it matters in the grand scheme of things, given the implications of this charge that you've had leveled against you.

00:03:53.760 But was it just the ads that you were charged for, the posters, the signs, the billboards?

00:03:58.880 Or was it those as well as the book itself?

00:04:02.180 You know, I'd have to look at the exact wording.

00:04:04.340 I don't have the violation in front of me, but they specifically mentioned the image.

00:04:11.600 We had an artist.

00:04:13.620 I don't know, for those, I mean, The Sopranos, a lot of the kids these days don't know what that is.

00:04:18.620 But for people in their 30s and 40s, they might recall that show, The Sopranos.

00:04:22.640 It's about 20 years old now.

00:04:24.020 They had this promotional poster that showed Tony Soprano and his Soprano family looking a little, very menacing.

00:04:31.560 So we, the book cover of The Sopranos was an homage to that.

00:04:36.960 It had Trudeau and his henchmen, Bill Morneau was in it, Catherine McKenna.

00:04:41.640 It was a total spoof.

00:04:43.080 I guess you only really got it if you understood the original Sopranos thing.

00:04:47.540 So it's probably a bit of a dated reference now.

00:04:49.680 But they, so what was on the billboards was exactly what was on the cover.

00:04:56.280 It was, we used the same artwork.

00:04:58.920 The only thing is our ads had three words on them, by the book.

00:05:04.140 So, you know, it was just the cover of the book that said, buy the book.

00:05:11.400 Those were found in violation.

00:05:14.260 I'm sorry, I don't have it in front of me, but you can read the violation for yourself.

00:05:18.560 We put them on the internet at SaveRebelNews.com.

00:05:21.520 So folks can read it.

00:05:22.860 You can also see my interrogation at the hands of these officers.

00:05:29.660 Can I throw one more wrinkle at you?

00:05:31.560 And I thought this was crazy.

00:05:33.580 When I was being interrogated with, and this was a year ago,

00:05:36.880 they asked me to go to their high security headquarters in Gatineau, Quebec.

00:05:41.680 So I did.

00:05:42.720 And then I, but I didn't tell them I was recording them because I knew no one would believe me.

00:05:47.380 I didn't know what they were going to say, but I knew it would be so crazy

00:05:49.980 that no one would believe me if I didn't film it.

00:05:52.000 So I went in there with a hidden camera.

00:05:53.520 That's the only time I've ever done that in my life.

00:05:55.480 I was very nervous about it, but it worked.

00:05:58.240 Not nervous to do it.

00:05:59.320 I was nervous that the camera wouldn't work, but it worked great.

00:06:02.060 And you can see in that videotape, and we have that on that page, SaveRebelNews.com.

00:06:07.260 I asked the cops, I said, I've come all the way to Gatineau, Quebec to meet you.

00:06:13.080 I've come here voluntarily.

00:06:15.000 I didn't tell them I came to record them also.

00:06:16.860 I said, I've come here to meet the complaint, but you haven't shown me the complaint yet.

00:06:23.440 Can I see the actual complaint that started this whole thing?

00:06:27.180 Can you tell me who complained?

00:06:29.480 And they said no.

00:06:31.140 They refused to show me the complaint.

00:06:33.760 They refused to tell me who the complainant was.

00:06:36.220 I said, how can I meet a child?

00:06:37.900 I've come all the way to Gatineau.

00:06:39.300 Yeah, you have a right to face your accuser, except you don't in this proceeding.

00:06:43.260 Yeah, and to this day, that was a year ago, remember, so they convicted me now.

00:06:47.720 They still haven't shown me the complaint or told me who the complainant is.

00:06:51.400 And I know this is just one more level of crazy.

00:06:55.020 They didn't actually invite me to their hearing or trial or whatever it was.

00:06:59.180 The last interaction I had with them was a year ago.

00:07:02.080 So they investigated me, they interrogated me or whatever, and then there was no hearing.

00:07:10.280 There was no time to come and present an argument.

00:07:13.880 They knew I had a law firm because I had my law firm talk to them about a few things.

00:07:18.560 So they knew who I was.

00:07:21.400 They knew how to get in touch with me.

00:07:22.760 They knew who my lawyer was and how to get in touch with them.

00:07:25.660 But they didn't tell either me or my lawyers there was going to be a hearing or a panel.

00:07:31.300 I don't even know.

00:07:32.660 Maybe it was just one guy who said he's guilty.

00:07:35.380 We weren't invited to that.

00:07:37.280 We didn't know how that it was.

00:07:39.000 We weren't even invited to make written submissions.

00:07:42.280 We were just told, out of the blue, that we were convicted and fined.

00:07:49.680 It's absurd.

00:07:50.680 Obviously, we're appealing.

00:07:52.440 And we're going to challenge the underlying constitutionality of this law.

00:07:57.460 And I think that this, the fact that they're doing, I think it's absurd.

00:08:00.860 I think it looks really bad on them.

00:08:02.640 But the fact they're proceeding nonetheless tells me we're in a new era, Andrew,

00:08:06.820 where shame and our cultural memory of being a free place no longer carries weight.

00:08:14.920 And it's been a few days since I rang the alarm about this.

00:08:19.620 And other than you and one of your colleagues at True North,

00:08:24.580 I don't think I've seen any coverage of this in the Canadian media.

00:08:29.660 And I think it's because I'm conservative.

00:08:32.960 I'm a bit of a troublemaker, a gadfly, some would say.

00:08:36.220 So either out of personal distaste for me or political disagreement with me,

00:08:41.780 the fancy people, the intellectual class, have decided,

00:08:45.340 all right, we're fine with an author being convicted in absentia.

00:08:49.260 We're fine with an author being hit with $3,000 in penalties.

00:08:52.660 Well, because they know their worldview insulates them from this.

00:08:55.600 And that's the big danger of this.

00:08:57.140 It used to be back in the era of the Human Rights Commission fights,

00:09:00.200 there was a principled response from journalists

00:09:03.100 because they understood the broader implications of what was happening.

00:09:06.860 And I do have to ask you about that battle,

00:09:08.700 because I recall one of the big shortcomings in people that support free speech's ability

00:09:13.980 to fight against the Human Rights Commission's

00:09:16.600 is that it wasn't really happening in a real courtroom.

00:09:19.720 And very similar to what's happening here.

00:09:21.460 This is a hearing that takes place behind closed doors.

00:09:24.420 It might not have even been a hearing.

00:09:25.680 Do you have the ability under this law to fight this in a real court?

00:09:31.920 Well, you know, I gave it to our lawyers and I asked them to look at the appeal.

00:09:36.420 And it will eventually get to a real court.

00:09:42.680 I think the first appeal, believe it or not, is within Elections Canada.

00:09:47.840 Of course.

00:09:48.220 Don't hold me to that.

00:09:49.960 A body that has served you so well up until this point in the investigation.

00:09:53.340 So we'll probably lose that one, too.

00:09:55.160 I don't know.

00:09:56.640 But I've told the lawyers,

00:09:59.000 it's the same lawyers that argued for Rebel News alongside you

00:10:05.020 and your lawyers at the Federal Court of Canada to get into the election debates.

00:10:10.640 So we've got great free speech lawyers, Aaron Rosenberg, David Elmolet.

00:10:14.380 They were with you when you won that free speech battle.

00:10:19.420 So these are the same guys I'm using.

00:10:21.160 Don't mess with success.

00:10:22.300 These guys got it.

00:10:23.100 So I said to them, appeal this finding, but also challenge the underlying law.

00:10:28.420 Because, look, if we don't do it, who will?

00:10:31.420 When I was a younger man, let's say 25 years ago,

00:10:35.620 I recall when I was just learning about the law and things like that,

00:10:39.700 I recall there was a tradition amongst Canadian media companies

00:10:43.620 to hire a free speech lawyer, like a top gun,

00:10:48.000 send him to court whenever there was a free speech battle.

00:10:51.120 And this one excellent free speech lawyer, and it would be different on different cases,

00:10:56.440 would represent all the media.

00:10:58.500 So a lawyer would show up in court and say, your honor.

00:11:00.660 Yeah, there was a consortium mindset.

00:11:02.100 The consortium, that's what they would call it.

00:11:03.360 Because everyone realized they were all in it together.

00:11:05.340 That's right.

00:11:06.080 So the Global Mail, the Toronto Star, the Toronto Sun, all the newspapers,

00:11:11.020 all the TV stations, they'd chip in like a thousand bucks each.

00:11:14.420 And together, that would maybe give them 20 grand.

00:11:17.040 So they'd send a top gun into court and say, your honor,

00:11:19.920 I'm here to represent every single newspaper and TV station, radio station in this country.

00:11:25.680 Here's the list of them all, because this is a grave threat to all of us.

00:11:29.460 And even though we may not like this guy, we may not know this guy,

00:11:33.140 the principle is so large and important, we're here.

00:11:35.860 I haven't seen that done in at least a decade.

00:11:39.620 And because there's so many newspapers and TV stations, it's not a money issue.

00:11:44.380 I think they have been tamed and trained, and they're submissive now.

00:11:50.040 I think they're all on the payroll of Justin Trudeau's media bailout.

00:11:54.540 They're all ideologically fused and merged with the government.

00:12:00.840 The Canadian Civil Liberties Association is absent without leave.

00:12:05.120 It really is a tiny handful.

00:12:08.000 The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, they're fighting hard.

00:12:11.680 And I think I've just gone through the whole list by mentioning them.

00:12:14.960 There is the Canadian Constitution Foundation.

00:12:17.760 I saw they were doing some stuff.

00:12:19.840 But really, there's nobody.

00:12:21.620 And it's really weird that we have to spend what will probably be 100 grand fighting this.

00:12:27.900 I mean, a normal human being would say, just pay the three grand.

00:12:31.320 Why would you pay?

00:12:32.420 Or just register your book.

00:12:33.680 But you have to, you can't die on the, I mean, you have to fight.

00:12:38.000 On these hills, though.

00:12:39.160 Because it is going to hamper your ability to write a book in the next election, whenever

00:12:43.580 that comes, and so on.

00:12:45.060 But I do have to ask, because I know that you're fighting the underlying law as well.

00:12:48.820 And I'm glad you are.

00:12:49.940 Because that act that exempts advertising of books, specifically, also has a caveat there,

00:12:56.620 which I understand they're using against you.

00:12:58.660 Which is that that only applies if the book were going to be published, regardless of whether

00:13:03.300 or not there were an election.

00:13:04.460 And now, personally, I don't think that should matter, right?

00:13:07.580 I think if you're in any sort of world of publishing, you don't want to publish something

00:13:12.260 when it's going to have less of an impact.

00:13:14.120 So if you're writing a book that has to do with an election, you're going to publish

00:13:17.140 it around the time of an election.

00:13:18.480 It's the same as how, in the media, people hold on to scoops until after weekends or after

00:13:23.300 holidays.

00:13:23.900 But this is a book that you would have written regardless, isn't it?

00:13:27.100 Yeah, you know what?

00:13:27.980 I'm glad you mentioned that.

00:13:29.080 So Section 2 of this law says books are exempt, the promotion of books are exempt if, number

00:13:35.740 one, it's sold at a reasonable price, and ours was, and number two, the book would have

00:13:41.380 been published whether or not there was an election.

00:13:43.240 That last part doesn't even make sense.

00:13:45.420 Because of course there's going to be an election.

00:13:48.440 And if there's not going to be an election, well, then we are in grave danger indeed.

00:13:52.420 And that's not even a joke anymore.

00:13:56.260 They've delayed elections in New Zealand.

00:13:57.960 They've delayed elections in the United Kingdom using the COVID emergency as an excuse.

00:14:02.940 So it's not even unthinkable that elections would be delayed.

00:14:06.740 That wording doesn't even make any sense.

00:14:10.360 I was asked by these cops, did you time the release of the book for the election?

00:14:15.240 I said, of course, because it's about the election.

00:14:17.380 You don't, there were probably, I'm going to guess, 500, maybe more books about Donald

00:14:24.140 Trump, probably 500, including sort of small publishers.

00:14:28.180 Like the Trump book industry, Trump saved the book industry.

00:14:32.140 You think about all the Trump books.

00:14:34.980 None of them waited till November the 4th to be published.

00:14:38.820 That would be really weird.

00:14:41.180 All of them were published pretty much after Labor Day because they wanted to sell books when

00:14:46.960 people were paying attention to the election.

00:14:49.080 Election was in its final moments.

00:14:51.200 So of course my book was published on the eve of the election.

00:14:56.140 Same thing with the other 23 books about Trudeau.

00:14:59.100 It would have been really, really weird to publish a book about Trudeau in the election

00:15:03.320 after the election.

00:15:05.120 Then it's all moot.

00:15:06.680 It's all obsolete.

00:15:07.380 And if they're trying to make that against the law, I mean, by the way, if they are saying

00:15:13.120 that's against the law, well, then all 24 books are against the law.

00:15:16.560 It's normal to publish a book during a campaign.

00:15:19.780 The wording of the law is so weird whether or not there's an election.

00:15:23.080 Well, if there was no election in Canada, you're darn straight I would publish that book.

00:15:26.980 Yeah, and it's more than books we need to be doing at that point.

00:15:29.640 All right, well, we wish you the best in this.

00:15:32.420 Please do keep us updated.

00:15:33.800 Ezra Levant, the Rebel Commander and author of the now-banned book, effectively, The Libranos.

00:15:39.680 Ezra, thanks very much for coming on today.

00:15:41.760 Thanks, Andrew.

00:15:42.480 Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:15:44.680 Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.

Juno News - January 27, 2021

Ezra Levant on being fined for writing a book about Justin Trudeau

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